[--------AMBIENCE'S PERSPECTIVE---------]

Free City, Truce - Fountain
A tiered fountain marks the center of Truce, water gushing from its
summit and trickling into a deep, wide basin, wrapped by a ring of benches.
Roads flow like rivers away from the fountain, and houses sprout like weeds
all around them. Not far to the east, the ocean roars in the harbor.

Ambience hurries in from the southern avenue of Truce, rather breathlessly; his face is a bit on the dirty side, and in one hand he's holding a pretty good-size (compared to him) sheathed sword with a hilt embedded with pearls. He sets it down nearby as he reaches the fountain, putting his hands on his legs and taking a minute to catch his breath.

In the fountain basin itself, a couple of miniscule splashes are suddenly visible, rippling out across the water desite their originators not being seen.

Lowell wanders in from the northern walkway, wiping a rather soiled brow with his free arm. This doesn't do much to clean things up, seeing as his arms and much the rest of him is pretty earthed-up too. He looks up briefly, gaze pausing on the fountain.

Ambience rubs his nose, leaving the covered weapon on the cobblestones nearby as he leans over the fountain basin's rim, reaching out to splash some water on his face in a blunt attempt to clean himself up. He seems to be oblivious of any and everyone else nearby.

There are a couple of streams moving along the surface of the fountain near where Ambience is washing his face, circling the basin from one side to another and occasionally kicking up drops of water in any given direction.

Lowell strolls to the fountain and props his well-used pitchfork on a nearby bench, just about to reach into the water; the streams tracing on the surface steal his attention before he has the chance.

The invisible streaming suddenly stops, two of them coming to a halt right next to reach other near the end where Lowell now is, and the surface grows calm after a moment, as if there was nothing truly there after all.

Ambience steps back off the fountain rim, reaching down as he turns to use his shirt ('atta boy!) to wipe his face off, dampening it rather thoroughly in the process, but at least getting his face clean!

Lowell stares at the water a bit longer, then reaches in anyway, drawing up a handful of water. A quick splash takes care of his face, and with sudden insight he opts to take some more in a canteen for the rest of the job. (using -his- shirt would just make things worse in that state)

Meanwhile, on a nearby rooftop, a small metal sphere coated in dust and pollen abruptly twitches. The lens on the front begins to glow a dull green as the system reawakens after having spent the last month on the rooftop, by his estimation. Helios finishes running his startup scripts and slowly rises about a foot into the air. The lens glows a much brighter green as he comes fully online. "how long were we offline?" He mumbles.

Ambience shakes his head a couple of times to clear it, looking back up after a moment and toward Lowell, his red eyes focusing for a moment as he takes... something, into account. It isn't too obvious as to what it is yet, though, but he does reach down to reacquire his weapon from the ground. His expression looks uncertain.

Lowell stops mid-swig, hand and container still in the water. "What the..." He leans a little closer, as if expecting to see something in the water.

Without warning, there is a double-burst of green light from the back of Lowell's hand, and a pair of tiny tree-framed women are standing there, looking up at him with wide green eyes; their hair, cascades of leaves overlapping each other in huge (for their size) manes, sway lightly in a breeze that happens to rustle by.

Ambience looks impressed all of a sudden, his uncertainty all-but dropping as he slings the weapon's band around one shoulder for easier carrying ability, advancing around the edge of the fountain toward Lowell. "Well that's diff'rent. They don't jus' come out for anyone."

Helios twitches irritabily as he looks around for the metal flakes that usually flew around him. "Oh, where are those blasted things? They probably got knocked all over the place while we were disabled. We should have seen that lightning bolt coming..." Helios continues to grumble to himself while he roots around on the rooftop for his flakes. After a few moments he has enough recovered to keep him happy. "Now, what were we doing before that bolt..." Helios seems to lean back and ponder for a moment.

Lowell snaps back with a yelp, looking between the tree-girls and the new voice, a bit flustered. "No kidding.. that's a new one on me," he offers, settling on staring bemused at the little creatures in the water.

"Oh, thats right. Those energy signatures..." Helios peeks over the edge of the roof, looking down on the fountain and the group of... mostly human beings there. "That boy is back..." He remembers the last time he saw him.

The little creatures begin climbing up the length of Lowell's arm (if not brushed off beforehand!) toward his shoulders, there they would plunk themselves down on one of his shoulders, side-by-side, still looking up at him with their bug, curious eyes.

Lowell just -halts- as the tree-maidens advance, looking a lot like someone with tarantulas crawling all over them. Little, leafy tarantulas.

Ambience looks fairly pleased with this result, however, nodding. "Yeah. They tend to affinite themselves to people who have a more consistent flow of mana. Mama says they are good judges of character, and besides me, her, and Crossroads, there was only one other person that I know of who could see 'n talk to them. Its sad though, 'cause I think he is gone now."

Ambience holds up a hand affirmingly, trying to reassure Lowell. "They don't bite or nothin'. They just like t'play with people they feel comfortable around. Though its amazin' me, they can take a while to get comfortable with anyone. I still have trouble hearin' what they're sayin', sometimes."

Helios ponders the lack of the others for a moment before dismissing their absence. He had a nagging suspicion that he would see them soon enough. The energy signatures from the boy- Ambience was his name, if he recalled correctly- and the little, almost plantlike, humanoids perched on the larger man held the majority of his attention.

Lowell manages a look at Ambience, still unsure, but looks to be relaxing ever so gradually. "Okay..." He also seems to be doing his best to deliberately avoid looking directly into either of the tree-girls' dinner-plate eyes.

One of the little tree-maidens reaches out to pat the side of Lowell's neck tentatively, attempting to use her own brand of reassurance. The other one merely giggles, a tiny little squeak of a voice even at that range, kicking her little root-feet against the front of his shoulder.

"They're mana spirits. Most of the time you can't see them, but they make up everythin' in this world." Ambience pauses for a moment, suddenly realizing something. "Oh, I almost forgot, sorry! I'm Ambience!" The boy goes into a short kneel, with an odd air of sudden chivalry.

Helios slowly moves back from the edge of the roof and begins to sort through his disguises to find the best one for this situation. As he sorts, he begins to get the nagging suspicion that the rouge lightning bolt did more damage to his data storage systems than he had initally assesed. "there was something else about that boy... what was it?" He ponders, but for the life of him can't seem to remember. Helios makes an elecrtonic noise that he equates to a shrug, "Eh, I'm sure it wasn't important." Helios floats down to the ground on the other side of the building and rearrianges the swirling cloud of flakes into the form of a Truce citizen. The "Truce citizen" then lesiurly srtolls out into the square, just in time to see the strange boy kneel to the other man.

Lowell focuses on Ambience again, only to find himself weirded out all over again. Not the kind of welcome he's used to. He ventures a step forward and nods. "And I'm Lowell."

"Sounds like you know a lot about these things," Lowell offers matter-of-factly, pointing a thumb at one of the tree-girls.

Ambience rises to his feet after a moment, smiling a pleasant smile at Lowell. The fact that the Dryads trusted him outright seemed to sit well with him, though he isn't overly obvious as to why. "Nice to meet you, Lowell. Its jus' kinda comforting to see them not scared of absolutely everyone and everythin'. It took them awhile to become friends with someone else I know, too. He takes a step back, looking at Lowell consideringly for a moment, almost... gaugingly.

Ambience raises his eyes toward the sky just after, then back at Lowell again with a nod. "They are my mama's Dryads. She sent them to watch over me until she comes back from the Holyland. Which should've been awhile ago, but..." He trails off, dropping his gaze.

The Dryads suddenly get to their feet on Lowell's shoulders, offering tiny little individual courtseys in greeting, as well. Kind of cute, really.

There isn't much to gauge: even under deep scrutiny, Lowell just looks like the average farmhand, down to the suspenders and pitchfork. That sandy mop of his looks self-cut, too, uneven but tried with good intentions.

Lowell mentally winces, shifting a bit. "Dryads, huh?" He looks to one of them, not -quite- comfortable enough to manage a smile, but he at least levels his tone. "Kinda sounds like the Sprites I've heard about in Tonoe. Never seen one to tell the difference, though."

Ambience nods. "I wouldn't doubt it. There are many different ones, but they all strive toward the same thing. Their balance helps to keep the world intact." For being as young as he is, he sure speaks like a scholar. His upbringing must've had something to do with it, perhaps. "Do you live around here, Lowell?"

Helios walks over to the other side of the fountain, close to where he stood last time he saw Ambience. He sits on a bench and begins to scan the energy signatures coming from the boy. He take note of the scrutiny the boy places on the... farmer? Yes, farmer would seem to be his profession; either that or the man was going to a costume party in the middle of the day. The scrutiny tha the boy places on the man adds to the nagging uneasy feeling around the boy. "Blast that lightning." Helios mutters.

One of the Dryads scoots along Lowell's collarbone under his neck, shuffling out in front and across to his other shoulder, so that there would be one on each side; each continue to peer up toward his face, blinking occasionally, but not too often.

Ambience's red irises shift toward the corner of their sockets, in the general direction the Truce citizen was standing. His expression doesn't change, however, and he does look back at Lowell again after a moment.

Helios tenses. The uneasy feeling around the boy had something to do with sight, he begins to recall.

Lowell starts to say something, pausing long enough to let the Dryad finish her shuffling, albeit with all the grace of someone trying to see around someone standing in a movie theater. "Sorta," he finally answers, pointing vaguely southward. "I'm helping out at a plot for a while down that way, for Prometheus, if you've heard of him."

Ambience shakes his head. "Nah, don't think I have. I don't actually live 'round here. I live way down in the woods, in Oreyndur, with my Da. Though I spend a lot o' time at the Monastery with the princess and Agrias, lately. Da's not a big fan of bein' social, so he jus' kinda stays home and doesn't do much. He misses Mama and Variance a lot."

The Dryads seem to share in Ambience's overall tone, lowering their leafy heads in accordance with the end of the boy's statement.

Helios notes the change in both the boys tone and his energy signature. Actually, considering what they called it here, he decided that he should begin calling it "mana" so as not to arouse suspicion. Helios assumed that mana was fairly close to energy, so it made sense to him.

Lowell nods a respectful acknowledgement, even if only for half of it. He approaches the fountain again, still looking toward Ambience. "Oreyndur's pretty far out. Do you travel a lot?" His arms lower, poised to dip into the water despite previous measures to prevent doing just that.

Helios continued to listen to their conversation. He realized he was getting off track. Again. Thia was becoming a real problem, the damage reporting software must have been damaged by the lightning as well as the data storage and logic systems. Helios shrugged, it would have to wait until later. There was ener- msna to be scanned, after all.

Ambience inclines his head somewhat, but doesn't respond right away. His expression turns a little on the uncertain side, and he looks toward the Truce Citizen, still not saying anything. His expression holds, but his eyes are definitely attempting to discern.

The Dryads look toward each other for a momen, then at Ambience, at Lowell, then at each other again. If there is some kind of exchange taking place, it isn't audible. However, a nimbus of green light engulfs them both rather suddenly, and they disappear within its light, leaving behind several blades of grass on Lowell's shoulders.

Lowell straightens a bit with a small "huh?", but looks back to Ambience soon after, idly starting to wash his arms in the fountain. (ew)

Helios jerks at the sudden mana spike. He hadn't been paying attention to the two small creatures closely enough, he realized.

Ambience only looks at the citizen for a moment longer; it becomes apparent that he likely had something to do with the Dryads' sudden departure, but he doesn't acknowledge it vocally. Instead: "Your mana flow is dormant. Either that means you're a corpse, or not what I'm seeing in front of me." His demeanor, despite the child's overtone, is eerily grave. Not threatening, but grave nevertheless.

Helios stiffens. "Oh, right. You can see right through this, cant you?" Helios stands up. "Well, no point in keeping up our charade any longer." He dissolves the disguise and shakes himself off a bit.

Helios says 'You probably had something to do with that lightning bolt too, didnt you?'

Lowell quietly looks about, temporarily distracted from fouling the fountain any further. The sudden... -change- subsequently shatters any intention he might have had of doing anything but staring ahead in bewilderment.

Ambience looks a little less on-guard once the disguise is extinguished, looking the resulting 'thing' up and down for a moment. "You could've just come out like that to begin with. My Da's a reploid, so it isn't like I'm uncomfortable around robots, or whatever you are." He pauses, looking down at his pearl-handled sword for a moment. "And no, I can't do lightning. I tend to stick with the Dryads, for the most part."

Helios sighs in relief. "At least you didnt throw things like the last person. The only other being that didnt freak out was that... cat... thing..." Helios' lens seems to aquire a vacant expression before snallpin back to normal. "That lightning really fried our circuts. we are having a lot of trouble keeping an idea on track."

Helios says 'You said your father is a reploid, did you not?'

Ambience looks briefly confused at the mention of a cat-thing, but nods at this query anyway. "Sorta. I mean, I was born in the Mana Holyland... and mama was, too. But Mama said she got pregnant in a dream, and gave birth to me before coming back here and leaving me with Da. I don't really understand the high points of it, mama would have to explain it." The uncertain tone of his voice reasons with what he's said, too.

Helios says 'Mana... Holyland? never heard of it, but what we would like to ask of you is if you can fix delicate electronics?'

Lowell discreetly takes his pitchfork and quietly edges away, eyes helplessly locked on Helios.

Helios glances over at the farmer. "Yes, we can see that you are afraid of us. It is a common theme, regretfully."

Ambience inclines his face, giving it a brief shake. "I can't. Da's been in need of some help for 'while now, but the spirits are what I am familiar with. I can track mana flows and find things that way, but when it comes to machines, I don't know much o' anythin'." He looks up, and at Lowell inching away, his expression evening out. "Hey, can I come see where you work sometime? I'm kinda curious as to what it may be that the Dryads see in you, if that's okay."

Lowell sneaks in a few more steps before noticing Ambience. He ekes out a nod. "Y-yeah, sure. I don't think that'd be a problem."

Helios sighs. "Well, it seems we will not get repairs today; much less aquire a soul in order to get rid of the vile company control." Helios hovers there morosely for a moment. Abruptly, he turns to look at the farmer as well. "We would like a job as well, as we have none of the local currency and we suspect that having some would be able to buy the necessary materials to fix ourselves." Helios forms a mirror out of the flakes for a moment and looks at his own reflection with disgust.

Helios says 'And some industurial cleaner wouldn't go amiss either.'

Lowell stands a little straighter, glancing aside in thought. "...I think I remember seeing somewhere here in town you could get work." He points a finger vaguely northeast. "Around there somewhere, maybe."

Helios says 'That sounds reasonable.'

Helios leans in close to Ambience. "We think he's trying to ditch Helios." He whispers.

Right on cue, Lowell snags a few more paces southward, sparing a look to you. "I better get going, I'll see you around!"

Ambience watches Lowell for a moment, shaking his head again as he regards Helios. "He said he already works for someone else, so I don't think he would be the one to ask for a job." He trailed off, trying to avoid watching Lowell too closely for the sake of not freaking him out any further. But that mana flow... why did the Dryads react to it so abruptly? They weren't even a -little- apprehensive. It was confusing as all getout.

Ambience looks up quickly as Lowell seeks to depart, and waves a little. "Oh, okay! Be careful on your way home."

Helios thinks for a moment. "Oh, yes. He did say that, didn't he. Please forgive our forgetfullness, we are still suffering from that lightning strike. But, regarding mana flow, yours is quite interesting. We havent seen anything quite like it, back... home."

Helios ponders that for a moment. "Was that truly home?" He mused.

Lowell waves in kind and makes his getaway! The young man leaves south, for (literally?) greener pastures.

Ambience furrows his brow, trying to remember what he can. "Its a long story. If I can put what I know into a timeline.. my Mama is a descendent of the Tree of Mana, which is an incarnation of the Goddess of Mana. So if you think of it that way, and from what Da made it sound, I am kind of the grandson of the Mana Goddess." He smiles faintly, but it looks rather fake. Perhaps he wasn't really too happy with this prospect, or maybe what came with it, anyway.

Helios stares blankly at the boy for a moment. "You'll have to tell us all about those things later. You mentioned that your... Da was in need of mantinence? We may be partially disabled, but We believe that we could help"

Helios says 'Unless its unfixable, but our class is supposed to be able to preform field repairs on other drones.'

Ambience frowns softly. "Its not really that. He just... doesn't take care of himself, anymore. When Mama and Variance both left, it was like he lost everything. He lost an arm, and never got it replaced. The rest of him is in bad shape too, but he doesn't care. I don't like seeing him that way, but I can't make him do anything. He wouldn't listen, anyway."

Ambience sounds... bitter? Maybe a bit more than that.

You say 'At this point, I wouldn't care who came back first, Variance or Mama. But Da needs someone to show him there's still a reason not to give up hope.'

Helios says 'Oh, We see.'

Helios says 'It seems that he had no direcive, but does not have the neccessary protocols to handle that fact.'

Helios says 'That falls under the 'unfixable' catecory, we are sorry to say. Until we can break free of the Companies control, we cannot fix software errors.'

Helios says 'We are sorry, but we wish the best of luck with his predicament.'

Helios stares off wistfully into the distance at the notion of being free from the "company" that he keeps bringing up.

Ambience shakes his head. "If it wasn't for me, I think he would have been gone long ago. I feel like I am not really what he wants sometimes, but the only thing he has left so that he has no choice." He turns toward the south. "If I had my choice, we'd all be a family again. And none of us would have to worry about any of this."

You say 'But I need to get going. Da will start worryin' where I've gone if I don't get home soon, and the last thing he needs is another thing to be worryin' about.'

Ambience seems to roll his eyes as he sets out southward, turning to wave at Helios as he does. "I'll see you around sometime, I bet."

Helios breaks out of his distant gaze.

Helios says 'Bye, I'm sure we'll meet again. And good luck with your Da!'

Helios waves to you.

Ambience disappears down the southern boulevard, looking a bit unhappy, but hurries away nevertheless.

Helios stands awkwardly at the fountain looking after the boy long after ambience is out of sight. "And another day goes by that we are still in danger of being found." He says as the cloud of flakes forms into the shape of a Wutai guardian. "We shall continue our search for a soul elsewhere, for now. But this boy deserves close scrutiny." Helios turns abruptly and leaves north, glancing at the skies above the town nervously.